For the love of all things in the garden and nothing of house renovations

I spent a lot of time growing a garden, canning the food that I harvested and saving seeds from what I planted this summer so I thought my efforts would be worth a mention here. While this has nothing to do with the Gladys house or renovations, it has a lot to do with why the project stalled this summer. Gardening and canning is not for the faint at heart for sure. It is a lot of work that yields much reward if you stick with it. I grew my first full garden last year and when I got started, I invested in a lot of heirloom seeds. I was able to save some of those seeds last year and plant them this year. I planted about 95% of my garden from seed this year and I am very proud of that. Its no small task, but I have a small green house that allowed me to accomplish this form of art. While I know so little about growing and gardening, I love the experience, I am amazed by God's creations and I am enjoying the learning process. When I was young, I lived on a 100 acre farm and can remember coming home from spring break vacations and going straight outside to see what had bloomed while we were away. I had my own little flower garden space on the side of our bank barn that I weeded and maintained in the spring and summer. We had an elderberry bush right at the base of the bank, next to the barn and I loved waiting for the berries to ripen. There is just something magical about watching something grow, especially if you planted it. My kids make fun of me because I literally go out to the garden and green house every day while I have things growing in the spring to see what has happened out there since the day before. Its amazing to me how somethings can change in just a matter of a few short hours.

Early beginnings

I started planting in the green house in early February. I began with kale, Brussel sprouts, broccoli and cabbage. The cabbage and Brussel sprouts did not fare very well in the spring, but I have a fall crop of cabbage in the ground now that I started from seed in August. We love sauerkraut (hello kleine frau!) and made our first batch last fall. I have a new neighbor from Russia and I hope to be able to impress her with my kraut.

Straight in the ground

Next, I put my peas, carrots, radishes and beets in the ground. Here's a little peek at what we yielded from these crops. Beets are probably Jeff and I's favorite veggie next to tomatoes. We canned pickled beets, plain beets, pickled spicy carrots (a favorite first), plain carrots, froze all of the peas and made a delicious German radish salad with homemade mayo. I ate it until I got sick, lol! I was only able to save seeds from the peas and radishes.

The full monte

The rest of the planting order is a blur. I had 3 raised boxes that I planted red and green leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, dill, basil, oregano, thyme, tarragon, cilantro, parsley and red, yellow and white onions. I had spring onions, leeks, shallots and mint in a smaller box on the back porch. We had green beans, 4 kinds of potatoes (that didn't make it), lots of tomatoes (amish paste, cherry, a crazy big hybrid mater and a mix of some heirlooms), tomatillos, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, jack-o-lantern pumpkins, watermelon, banana peppers, jalapeños, hot peppers, bell peppers and some sweet snacking peppers. If there was anything that I learned this year from my garden, its that I will use some sort of weed barrier next year. I don't care how much it costs. I lost 8 rows of potatoes, several mounds of cucumbers and 4 rows of corn to weeds, thanks to the very fertile soil that we added. I just could not keep up. We also had a hard time with all of our squash plants this year. I read somewhere that something was killing off these kinds of plants this year, but I was really disappointed that we didn't get any zucchini, pumpkins or watermelons. We were able to can spicy dilly beans, plain green beans, refrigerator pickles, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, plain tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes with zucchini, salsa (with all of the ingredients grown in my garden), pickled banana pepper rings and we froze a little bit of broccoli.

It takes a village

I could not have done all of the canning without some troopers in my life. My sweet mom came down for a week just as the tomatoes were getting ripe and we got a good start on things while she was here. Jeff, the kids and grandkids were also very helpful. In this house, if you don't help can it, you don't get to eat it :)

Some odds and ends

Aside from canning a lot of our veggies, we did eat like kings and made a few other yummies for keeps. One of my favorite things to make with fresh garden produce is gazpacho, cold tomato soup. I made a big batch at our son's birthday party and probably ate what was left single handedly. LOTS of salads :) We LOVE fried green tomatoes and enjoyed quite a few with fresh mozzarella and homemade pesto. We also enjoy a good fresh tomato salsa and salsa verde made with our tomatillos and green tomatoes. Zucchini bread is a favorite and we used mom's zucchini from her garden. Zucchini basil soup, carrot soup, roasted tomato soup, stuffed and grilled tomatoes and jalapeño poppers are just a few more of our culinary favs that we enjoyed from the garden this year. And a first for me this year was elderberry syrup. We have a crazy elderberry bush growing in our chicken coup. I tried to grow a bush that I got from my brother-in-law up in NY one year with no success. I've never seen one grow down here but have longed to have one from my sweet childhood memories on our farm. Jeff said to me one day this spring that we had elderberries and I couldn't imagine where. I was familiar with the crazy bush that was growing in the coup and we left it there to provide shade for the chickens, but I never imagined that it was an elderberry bush. Its been there for almost 4 years! I have no idea where it came from, but man am I thankful that we have it. Elderberries have amazing immune boosting properties so I didn't let them go to waste. I made several batches of elderberry syrup with local honey and a splash of vodka for preservation purposes. Its amazing!

Last but not least, and most important, SEEDS

As I mentioned earlier, I started saving seeds last year. I was a total newbie and had no clue what I was doing. This year, I watched a lot of youtube videos and experimented. Seed saving is an art. Hands down. It has been the thing that I have enjoyed most out of gardening this year. I'm a total geek in this department and I just can't explain how satisfying it is to complete the plant circle of life by harvesting its seeds. Every plant has a different method for saving seeds and I don't know if I'll ever NOT be amazed by what this tedious task can produce. So far this year, I was able to save seeds from the following plants:

• Peas

• Radishes

• Red and green leaf lettuce

• Arugula

• Spinach

• Cilantro

• Basil

• Dill

• Zucchini

• Pickling cucumbers

• Several varieties of tomatoes

• Peppermint

• Several varieties of peppers

• Green beans

At the end of the day, I love gardening. Its hard work and just recently when everything needed canned at once, I just wanted to walk away and quit. I was canning something about every other day for awhile. But I am glad that I didn't give up. I am proud of the fact that I haven't let anything go to waste out of my garden yet this year. I either ate, canned or gave away what I grew. And honestly, I gave away very little fresh produce. And I gave away even less canned goods. Its a running joke in our house that you are favored if you have received something that I canned. Its easier to give away fresh produce that you grew than something that you grew AND canned. So, if you are reading this and you have received something that I canned, I truly love you :)